A reader sent this today. It is sad that things keep sliding downhill. Is no one in authority still left uncorrupted? Things that were fixable problems in decades past have been allowed to run downhill at a rapid rate by those that do not wish real security or government oversight to function at all. If you still care and have some personal knowledge of this mess, please by all means contact your elected politicians before they hold their hearing. GFS

G Florence:

So the Senate is going to examine the security clearance process. And it sounds like people want to blame the Office of Personnel Management for everything that is wrong. Seems like I remember the Defense Investigative Service, now the Defense Security Service, had this mission from the early 1970’s until just recently. I also remember continuous problems with the security clearance process while it was under the Defense Security Service.

So do you think that the Senate will ask the first hard question? If the Office of Personnel Management has really taken over the personnel clearance mission, then why has the Defense Security Service halted a majority of the periodic reinvestigations for Top Secret personnel clearances? The Defense Security Service is claiming budget issues. Are personnel clearance budget dollars still being funneled through the Defense Security Service? And if so, why? The Defense Security Service can’t manage their own internal budget. Why would anyone trust them with the budget of another agency’s mission?

If you remember, the Defense Security Service spent an average of $1 million or more dollars each year for the past five or more years on their internal All Hands junket meetings in many places to include Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Orlando. This after the Secretary of Defense directed all Department of Defense agencies, by DoD Directive, not to hold such meetings. The Director of the Defense Security Service ignored the Secretary of Defense’s directive, and called the junkets “trainings.”

A Senate panel on Thursday will examine federal security-clearance processes, continuing a brief round of hearings this week in response to contractor Edward Snowden leaking information about the nation’s sweeping electronic-surveillance program. The Senate subcommittee that deals with contracting and federal workforce will raise questions about a perceived lack of oversight, limited IT capabilities and insufficient information sharing between government agencies, according to an announcement from the group. A report from the national intelligence director showed that about 1 million contractors and more than 3.5 million federal government employees including military personnel hold security clearances. A recent article from Federal Diary columnist Joe Davidson explored the issue of whether contractors should do national security work. The Defense Department handled security clearance processes until 2005, when the Office of Personnel Management’s investigative services division took over the responsibility. Since then, OPM has implemented several changes to decrease clearance-request backlogs and improve the quality of its reviews, according to the subcommittee’s announcement. The hearing on Thursday will feature testimony from OPM’s inspector general and an associate director of investigations for the agency, as well as from the head of the Defense Department’s defense security service, among other officials. Senior government officials also testified Tuesday, saying the government’s electronic surveillance program has thwarted more than 50 terrorist plots in the U.S., according to a Washington Post article about the hearing.

7 Comments:

I was “terminated” for insubordination. I was told to get a paper from a DR who wouldnt see me any more indicating I was not using any illegal drugs. A new DR gave me the drug test which WAS given to Boeing. They did not see it and libeled me with the union in collusion . I was later offered the very same package the contract provided already provided – MINUS the ability to EVER work for any company Boeing has dealt with. This is called BLACKLISTING. I have filed a report with the EEO . The mental stress has been damnable. The IAM 751 people are in bed with Boeing as it mentioned on their “offer”. They are a fraud taking dues and pretending to protect jobs..

Thank you for your comment. I have heard of similar situations. If Boeing wants you gone, it appears they will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. The target of the attacks has to figure out a way to get expensive legal help, and even then since Boeing has a fleet and a half of attorney’s in house and tentacles reaching out to many others in the areas where they have plants, it is very difficult to prevail. I would like to hear more about your specific case. You may email me at the email listed in “About” for this blog. GFS

Keep in mind, the Boeing business plan is brilliant in the business world. They have some portion of their product and manufacturing needs being produced in all fifty states, simply to maintain control of the politicians (Both Federal and state) by threatening to move to any other state if their legislative agendas do not match that of Boeing’s.

When Senator Graft or Representative Corruption fail to follow Boeing directives, the campaign money stops or Boeing tells our honest and ethical elected officials that they are willing to move their manufacturing to another state and with this kind of power, “Blacklisting” anyone they don’t like is easy and it serves them well as a deterrent to others like you who might speak ill of the great and powerful Oz of the Northwest .

Boeing is only powerful because of the Fraud, Waste, Abuse and corruption that is known as Washington DC.

Totally disgusting isn’t it? The catch term “too big to be prosecuted” fits here perfectly. This company functions rather like a giant amoeba with threads reaching out into every possible place they can seek influence and control. I hear they have just about defeated any sort of real oversight in any of the agencies who are supposed to have oversight of their commercial or even their government contracts within the not so public world. All of the waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, and truly traitorous acts of this company and any others with a like set of values and attitude must be brought to and end, and the company(s) brought to justice. Thanks for your comment. GFS

You are correct for the most part. And with the Citizen’s United Supreme Court Decision that said Corporations are people and have every right a person does, in fact, due to the money differences, way more power than an actual person does. Until we can achieve real Campaign Finance Reform and overturn the Citizen’s United decision we have little chance of fixing any of this outrageously corrupt garbage. It would not hurt to get more ethical legal minds into the Supreme Court as well.

Yes, I have observed that company push and apply threats, intimidation and retribution to whistleblowers before. It appears they will stop at nothing to try to get rid of someone. I know someone who also took their skills and tried to find other work in the area of their expertise. Every job the person won and thought was going to work out well, resulted in a layoff. One supervisor told the person when h/she was brought in to be fired, that they were letting h/her go not because their work was bad, (quite the contrary in fact), but because Boeing found out they were working there, and threatened the company that Boeing would give them no more contracts and would buy no more parts from them if they continued to employ the whistleblower that Boeing was trying to destroy. It is unforgivable and outrageous they are still getting away with this type of tactic.

Hrmm that was weird, my comment got eaten. Anyway I wanted to say that it;28#17&s nice to know that someone else also mentioned this as I had trouble finding the same info elsewhere. This was the first place that told me the answer. Thanks.

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GFS

This blog is about whistleblowers and the conditions and situations that happen in their lives to create their whistleblower status. This blog is intended to inform, share, and support whistleblowers and those who support them.